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NBA Playoff Schedules Released

Here is the schedule for the Knicks (read on for the schedule for the entire playoffs):

Game 1: New York Knicks at Boston Celtics, Sunday, April 17, 7 p.m. (TNT)
Game 2: New York Knicks at Boston Celtics, Tuesday, April 19, 7 p.m. (TNT)
Game 3: Boston Celtics at New York Knicks, Friday, April 22, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
Game 4: Boston Celtics at New York Knicks, Sunday, April 24, 3:30 p.m. (ABC) (Easter Sunday! Ties into my recent Unsung Knick History piece).
Game 5*: New York Knicks at Boston Celtics, Tuesday, April 26 TBD
Game 6*: Boston Celtics at New York Knicks, Friday, April 29, TBD
Game 7*: New York Knicks at Boston Celtics, Sunday, May 1, TBD

*If necessary, as the Knicks might have already won the series in four games.

Friday, April 29
Game 6: Oklahoma City Thunder at Denver Nuggets* TBD
Game 6: Boston Celtics at New York Knicks*, TBD
Game 6: Miami Heat at Philadelphia 76ers*, TBD
Game 6: San Antonio Spurs at Memphis Grizzlies*, TBD

Sunday, May 1
Game 7: New York Knicks at Boston Celtics*, TBD
Game 7: Philadelphia 76ers at Miami Heat*, TBD
Game 7: Memphis Grizzlies at San Antonio Spurs*, TBD
Game 7: Denver Nuggets at Oklahoma City Thunder*, TBD

MDA got a bit defensive when Golic asked him about all the points they give up – nothing groundbreaking but the interesting points he brought up were:

– NYK 1st shot defense is good but opponent O-Reb are a huge problem
– we foul too much on defense
– “they score a lot but we score more”
– emphasis on margin of victory, not the actual scores themselves.
– it takes 2-3 years of playing together to get team defense where it needs to be

I sort of agree with all these points — not sure where to get stats about this, but my feeling is that our “1st shot” defense is probably middle of the pack, but that our poor defensive rebounding skews our overall defensive efficiency significantly downward.

Re: the fouling – I think JJ, while he is a pretty good one-on-one and help defender, seems to give a lot of poor “and-1″ fouls — he HAS to stop that. Better to just let them dunk the ball and get the 2 rather than 3.

re: the team defense – I think if you have great defensive coaching things can come together in 1-2 years. If you have great defensive players AND great defensive coaching, it can come together in 1 full season (ie. this year’s Bulls, previous years’ Celtics). But in D’Antoni’s defense, he’s had so much flux in his roster since he got here — there’s been no time to get the team chemistry/communication necessary for team defense. This is his 3rd season and there are ZERO players from 08-09 on the team

In the Landry-Walker debate, you can’t forget Toney Douglas. He’s vastly improved since the all-star break. Assists and rebounds have doubled and he’s shooting over .400 from three since the break. He and Landry really resemble the Bell-Barbosa combo from Phoenix, but likely better.
Walker is shooting well, but there’s just not a lot of minutes for him. His TS is roughly that of Fields’ but he rebounds and assists at a poorer rate. Both Landry and Douglas have been better from three since the ASB.
Walker’s defense seems to have improved lately, but I think he works better against 3’s than 2’s, and there’s just not a lot of minutes behind Melo. He’s intrigued me since his spectacular TS post-Nate trade, but he still doesn’t do much else.

Re: our O boarding, one thing that is fortunate is that Boston surprisingly ranks 28th in O boarding (although 9th in defending O boards) so perhaps we can at least limit their 2nd chances.

I suppose that could change if he can make a lot more money by taking his option year in 12/13, so I suppose best case scenario is he declines on those grounds, the nets strike out again in free agency, and he decides at the end of 11/12 that the Nets are going nowhere. Seems a long shot though.

I haven’t been this excited about an NBA game since the ’90s! I can’t wait for Sunday night. Deep down I know I’m likely to be disappointed, but right now I am optimistic as hell and ready to shout obscenities at the green men on the TV screen. :)

I suppose that could change if he can make a lot more money by taking his option year in 12/13, so I suppose best case scenario is he declines on those grounds, the nets strike out again in free agency, and he decides at the end of 11/12 that the Nets are going nowhere. Seems a long shot though.

Seems sort of what he should say regardless of what his intentions are. Will give the Nets a year to close the deal in terms of surrounding him with enough talent – he can always walk regardless of what he says today.

Since I knew Brandon years ago, I’ve tried to like his stuff. I’ve tuned into his AM show a couple of times, during the Carmelo trade talks. He struck me as typical talk radio stuff, nothing more. I thought of calling in, but you can’t win with an opposing opinion on these shows. He’s my age, but uses the same archaic stats, cliches as the last generation.

Good for rah-rah kinda stuff (this piece is touching about his dad), but he’s generally lacking in any real substance or analysis.

I can’t believe how many injuries and near-catastrophes have occurred as a result of this clamoring for home-court advantage. Bynum. Noah. Worse yet, Spurs lose Manu, their best player, for at least one game because they wanted to ensure home-court in the event that they get to the finals. Unbelievable.

What I found strange about the Spurs is that they sat their starters against the Lakers but decided to suit up against the Suns. In case of the Bulls, it seems that once they saw the opportunity, they seemed to just go for it. I disagree with going for the best record at all costs since look at what happened to Manu.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, it is notable that he wasn’t actively anti-Nets, but besides that, all he said was your standard “Yeah, I could sign here” thing that makes headlines whenever a player says it, but doesn’t mean anything 99% of the time. Like Chris Paul saying the other day that he would consider playing in Charlotte. Yeah, I’m sure he would consider it, but it would never actually happen.

At home probably. I can’t even remember the last time I flaked out hanging out with people just so I can watch a game. That being said, I don’t want to admit to people that I want to go home just so I can catch a playoff game.

This sunday, I’ll be watching the game on my couch wearing my old school Ewing Jersey. I hope the knicks can steal 1 game in Boston. I’m going to game 3 at the garden on friday. My first Playoff game since I was in college in 1997. I went to game 4 that year at the garden in the conference finals, against the heat. Put the knicks up 3-1. We all know what happened after that in game 5………shiver……, But I digress. I will have my vintage starks jersey on friday night at the garden, in the hopes that the knicks catch fire from 3. Either way I’m so pumped right now, I’m about to explode. NY Knicks fan for life!!!!!!!

Mike Kurylo: Since I knew Brandon years ago, I’ve tried to like his stuff. I’ve tuned into his AM show a couple of times, during the Carmelo trade talks. He struck me as typical talk radio stuff, nothing more. I thought of calling in, but you can’t win with an opposing opinion on these shows. He’s my age, but uses the same archaic stats, cliches as the last generation.

Good for rah-rah kinda stuff (this piece is touching about his dad), but he’s generally lacking in any real substance or analysis.

but tell us how you really feel…

Srsly though I don’t even remember what it feels like to be in the playoffs again. It’s like my mind forgot. I can’t wait to go nuts. GO NIX

Doug:
Actually Mike I see where you’re coming from re: Tierney. I was getting strong Bill Plaschke vibes from.

I guess I like Tierney because I feel like he’s one of us, which I know is not the role of a sports commentator but I enjoy listening to him anyway. And I do think he’s pretty well informed compared to some of the other gasbags.

Meh, idk i mean I know that Boston had a great run last year, but I just don’t feel like they are that strong this year. And last years run tends to be the exception to the rule and not the rule itself. This Boston team is ripe for the picking and I’m kind of stunned that there isn’t more of a belief among Knicks fans. I mean I understand some of the bloggers, because sorry guys, but you all never really seem to pick an upset. You pretty much pick the favorites and it’s just real vanilla. But from the actual fans out there (not bashing bloggers, just meaning people whose jobs don’t include discussing the Knicks) I really thought there would be a more optimistic sentiment. And as I’ve said before, I don’t really see any value in lacking faith but hoping to be wrong. I mean believing they will win and not being rewarded for it is not so bad is it? I don’t think Thomas felt so great when he saw the wounds, pretty sure he wished he would have had the faith to believe. But hey, it’s just a game. I just have a sentimentality about things like this that I guess many people really don’t have.

I think the Knicks have a great chance to win this series. I’ve given them nearly a 50/50 shot all along, maybe 40/60. Given this is a 3v6 matchup against a team that lost in the NBA finals last year, I think that qualifies as optimism. But as Hollinger said, teams with home-court advantage and who won the season series virtually never lose this kind of a matchup.

That being said – there’s only been one real game between post-trade NYK and BOS – and we dominated that game until they ratcheted up the defense in the 4th quarter. Hopefully we’ve come together enough that when they hit us in the chin, we hit them right back.

I think the important thing for the Knicks will be to stay the course when a few calls go the wrong way in the fourth. The game we played against them after the trade they were dominating the whole way as Frank said and then there were a few non calls that seemed to clearly get into the heads of the Knicks. And while I did think that most of those calls were horrendous, I think you cannot allow something like that to take you out of the game like it did to them. Now that being said I think this team is much improved since that game. They were still in the feeling out process at that point and were in a rut. I think for the most part you can throw the season series out on this one because the teams are just so different now. And while I agree with everyone about defense being key to the series it’s also going to depend greatly on if we are hitting our shots. If our jumpshot is falling we can’t be beat. When it’s not falling we have a pretty tough time.